Wishing on a Star
by Utsukushii Kohana
Summary: Suffering from a cold night, makes Toph a little homesick. Fortunately for her, there's someone who eagerly wants to cheer her up.


**Wishing on a Star**

* * *

Suffering from a cold night, makes Toph a little homesick. Fortunately for her, there's someone who eagerly wants to cheer her up. Oneshot.

* * *

It was a cold, winter night and the night had already cascaded upon them, the sky a dark azure colour painted with a million sparkling stars and a sharp breeze was whipping through the air with an eerie, howling sound, rustling against the bare branches of the high trees. As a shagged, exasperated sigh escaped her parted lips, Toph rubbed her hands together to try to get rid of the numb, tingling feeling in her fingers because of the cold that had settled throughout her entire body. She was still waiting, very impatiently, for Sokka to return with branches from the woods to make them a campfire to get some warmth and she was growing annoyed with the older water tribe boy because it took him way too long to just fetch some branches from the ground. Blowing against her now blue-ish looking hands, she revelled in how her own warm breath felt against her goose-bumped skin, but unfortunately her joy didn't last long because the cold would rapidly consume her again.

She felt through the vibrations how Aang lied down with his back on the cold, hard ground and was playing with the short blades by pulling them out and then she guessed blowing them away with that long and powerful breath of his. He didn't seem to be bothered by the cold as much as her and even Katara for that matter. It was very difficult for Toph to not concentrate on how badly Katara was shaking because of it; the vibrations coming from the waterbending master were a bit too much and too strong for Toph's taste, and to be frank, the youngest of the bunch thought it was kind of peculiar too. She suspected the girl to be familiar with this kind of weather, having lived on the South Pole her entire life, where the climate was even beyond this chill.

"I'm back," a perky voice filled the silence out of the blue that had descended upon the three of them a while ago and Katara jumped up from her crawled position, happily startled by her brother's presence.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, beaming with sudden gayness as a big, toothy smile dawned her pretty features and ran up to Sokka as fast as her wobbling legs could bear—she had been sitting down with her knees pressed against her chest for a long time and now she didn't have any feelings in her limbs. As she got to the confused Sokka, she snatched the branches roughly out of his arms and practically frolicked back to her other two friends to make the fire they had all been desperately awaiting. Aang joined the joyous girl, as he crouched down next to her to help her stacking the branches and then stomped two little rocks together to ignite a spark to create fire.

The clunking of the two stones irritated Toph immensely, because the harsh, brusque sound was penetrating her ear drums in an uneven rhythm and rather too painful in her book. Annoyance was growing in the pit of her stomach, churning in this vicious whirlpool and was currently killing her roughly from within. As an attempt to shield herself, she placed her hands on her ears to prevent the sound waves from reaching them anymore, whilst she cringed visibly with her nose scrunched in disgust because she soon realised her little trick was inadequate. She couldn't stand the horror anymore; all she could focus on was the cold waves washing over her and the rambunctious sound of those stones.

On reflex she just stood up, looking a bit red in the face and her eyes squeezed shut as she bellowed, "I hate this stupid night!" That being out in the open, she felt a little relieved to say the least, but then she noticed the tense composures of her three companions and she felt a bit embarrassed by her sudden outburst, she could feel their eyes glued on them even without seeing it and she smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head whilst she mumbled, "I—euh—I—," but that was all that came out of her, she felt senseless and ridiculous, so she just whirled around and headed towards the woods, not being able to bear this tension that was eerily hanging in the air anymore.

She ambled through the woods muttering bitter curses about the cold and how annoyed she was by that screeching sound of those rocks—she couldn't believe it took Aang that long to form a teeny spark—under her breath, whilst she skilfully stepped over all the roots that were sticking out of the high trees and avoided all low hanging branches. At times like these she was so content by being able to _see_ with her feet. Out of nowhere she felt vibrations coming from a big tree, she could distinguish it being a willow and with a sudden urge, she trudged forward to it as a small, wryly smile dawned her pretty features, though the smile didn't reach her sea-foam green eyes. Softly, she caressed the bole of the tree with her fingertips, causing some of the resin to linger on her slender fingers before placing her whole palm on it. All these amazing vibrations of the tree flowed through her hand, up to her arm and passed through her entire body; she felt its long, flexible branches swayed in a mysterious breeze, brushing the ground. The branches appeared to be grown from the very top of the trees and then hung over the trunk, making a large curtain-like shield all around. The sight struck Toph as magical and as her smile grew, she decided it wouldn't harm anyone to stay here a little while.

With her back against the bole, she leant her head back as she pulled her knees up to her chest to keep her the least warm, yet with her feet still firmly on the ground just in case she spotted something odd and she dropped her eye-lids to increase the sensational pleasure as she inhaled slowly, letting the sensual whiff of the tree together with the fresh winter air waft her nostrils. How she wished this moment could go on forever, because it had been a long time since she felt this peaceful and relaxing.

Her head snapped up as she felt something rustle in the nearby bush and she frowned, squinting her eyes in concentration. As she could make out who was approaching her so suddenly, albeit not so very subtle, a playful smirk tainted her pink lips and she summoned a tremor in the earth at him to make sure the person would lose his balance before she even shot a large spire of rock at her 'mystery' guy. Afterwards she waited a bit in anticipation and then when a loud, gracious yelp echoed through the forest, she chuckled coyly and ran up to her secret assaulter as he landed gracefully on his behind.

"Sokka," she addressed him, doing her best to contain her fit of giggles as she could feel him rubbing his bottom with his two hands to ease the soar a bit, "You should know better than to sneak up on me," she stated, a black eyebrow raised in triumph and _tsk_-ing teasingly at him.

Grumbling, he sent her a death-glare, he got up on his feet, hopping a bit because his tail-bone still hurt much, which amused her all the more and she had even more difficulty holding in her laughter, so she pressed her lips together in a thin line.

"Why did you run away like that?" he inquired, straight to the point while dusting off the dirt of his blue water tribe wardrobe, scrunching up his nose in disdain.

Rolling her eyes to the back of her head at his peculiar behaviour sarcastically (she knew he was very fond of cleanliness, but she sure thought he could over do himself most of the time), she heaved a long, exasperated sigh. "I didn't know you were so forward, Snoozles," she said, her voice dulled and then crossing her arms in front of her stomach defiantly. She could feel his eyes on her, which was too unbearable for her and she turned around fastly to sit back down underneath the willow which was like her sanctuary because she senses she would she was bound to burst into an angry and emotional fit anytime soon as she continued to stay under his gaze. Plus the fact that she was blushing so furiously because he was staring at her, was something she wanted to hide. As she plopped down, in the same position as before and as she heard him scoot down next to her with his back against the rough trunk like her and his legs sprayed out in front of him, she gave him a quick, nonchalant shrug and spoke carelessly, "I—I don't know why."

He studied her facial expression cautiously with a detailed eye and he could see that she was putting up her tough act again to keep something that was clearly upsetting her secret. But he was determined to find out what that exactly was, so that he might cheer her up again—he just couldn't stand to see his friend so hurt. "You do know why, Toph," he said, matter-of-factly, "You can tell me what is bothering you. I won't judge you or anything nor will I tell Katara or Aang if you don't want me to."

"You swear?" she asked, her voice so soft and insecure, the kind of voice he barely got to hear from her, but the kind of voice he so adored about her. Not that he liked that she was so sad and insecure, but he liked it that he could meet the real Toph that she kept locked up behind that wall she had built up since she became the Blind Bandit.

He smiled warmly and answered gently, "I swear."

Exhaling slowly, as if she was breathing out all her nervousness, she nodded. "Okay, I'll tell you," she told, smiling half-way, "It's just that—," she paused for a split second, biting her lower lip anxiously as if she was about to reveal a big, humiliating secret. Sokka's eyes softened and he placed a tender, reassuring hand on her shoulder, causing her to suddenly feel her whole body and mind go numb and she could only channell all her focus on his hand. His soft, yet calloused and warm hand that sent a jolt throughout her entire body before it went numb and then she felt an intense shiver run down her spine, wiping away the numb feeling and made her head buzz.

She shrugged the enticing and sensational feeling away and proceeded her story, as if his touch gave her renewed strenght and courage to tell the story, "Back at home," she said, alerting Sokka as he perked up his ears to hear her better. He knew that the word '_home_' was a touchy subject with the master earthbender. "When it was cold like it is now, although not nearly as cold as this of course," she chuckled a bit at her own words, "My father would make a fire single-handedly to keep my mother and me warm. It was the only kind of labour he would do himself, otherwise the servants would do it for him, but that work was special for him. And that was only because he felt obliged to be the protector of us, our saviour, our hero you might say. Then we would sit closely by the fire, holding up these white candies to roast them on a stick and the three of us would just wrap ourselves with these one, long blanket cosily. That's why I always secretly wished for the cold to wash over our house only to be able to be so close to my parents again."

Wrinkling his brow pensively, he examined her pretty, soft features through squinted ocean-blue eyes and noticed the faint glimmer of tears filling the rims of her eyes. Then it dawned him why that little family moment was so precious to her. "Because normally your father is too busy with his work and your mother too busy with keeping everything in order in the house, too busy to spend time with you," he spoke his thoughts out loud and she bobbed her head twice to confirm his statement.

His stomach lurched in such a way that he couldn't describe; he just felt like there was a vicious whirlpool of anger and pain and defeat churning in the pit of his stomach because he just couldn't imagine how lonely Toph's life had been. He had grown up in this wonderful family; his father was strict but righteous, his mother was caring and tender, his grandmother was joyful and full of life for a woman of her age and his sister, Katara, had always been so kind and mature. And even when his mother got killed in that horrible raid and his father left with every other Southern Water Tribe soldier to fight in the war when he was young, he still had the love of his grandmother and sister, and that had been enough for him. (Even though he did miss his mother and father greatly.) So he naturally assumed everyone in a family would be loved, just like he was, but that had been apparently so naïve of him.

Licking his sudden dry lips, attempting to come up with something to make the distraught girl sitting next to him feel better, he leant his head back and looked up to the dark azure sky which was painted with million of sparkling stars across. Then he noticed a bright light in the midst of the curtain of stars, it was much fiercer than the other ones and it flew through the sky downwards. His lips parted at the enchanting sight as the blazing silvery glow kept falling and falling with such an amazing velocity that he kept starting at it intently with admiration and suddenly a brilliant idea popped in his head as though the brilliant star fell in it, melting with his brain.

He looked back at the young girl, smiling and beaming radiantly. "Why don't you wish it on the stars?"

"What?" she enquired, an incredulous look plastered on her face as she wrinkled up her nose, "What do you mean by that, Pony-Tail?"

He decided it would be for the better to ignore her little nickname for her and simply explained himself further, his voice all giddily excited, "I know you can't see it but there's a falling star in the sky," he said and she frowned, curious where he was going with this, "And I have been told that it's tradition that if there's a star falling you can make a wish on it and it will come true."

She quirked an eyebrow funnily at him, shaking her head disbelievingly at him. "You really buy that?" she asked, rhetorically and then smirked smugly, patting his back tauntingly. "You really are too gullible."

Sagging his shoulders at her quipping, he pouted a bit fuming at her stubborness. "Just do it. Even if it is a bit silly, just wish for the same thing again like you said you always wished for; for cosiness with your family during cold weather," he directed gently.

Heaving a soft, tired sigh, she closed her eyes and then made her wish as she was told to. "Done," she simply mumbled and before she could open her sea foam green eyes again, she felt Sokka snaking his arm around her slim shoulders to pull her closer to him in a very comfortable embrace.

"See, your wish came true," he softly whispered in her ear, "You've got cosiness with your family during cold weather."

She was startled by his sudden action, her blush again creeping on her cheeks and she felt all fuzzy and warm inside. Still bewildered, she then wrapped her own arms around him, snuggling closer into his hug and she liked the way her petite body weld into his as a perfect match. Even though she missed her parents much, she adored how Sokka was a better replacement and now when she would wish for cold weather, she would wish it so that she could relive this moment again.

* * *

**A/N:** The ending was different than I originally intended it to be, but while I was writing the story I just thought this would fit better. Besides, nothing like cute, fluffy Tokka goodness during the Holidays.

Reviews make me happy! ;)

_26__/12__/2007_

* * *


End file.
